The Seventh Year After the Political Marriage

Seven years after her marriage alliance, Song Nanxi returned to Chang'an with her husband to pay her respects, revisiting the city she had left behind for so long.

She wore her hair in a married woman's style. No longer willful as she had once been, she was gentle and agreeable in conversation, graceful in every situation, and had become a virtuous wife praised by all.

When she encountered the man she had once loved at the banquet, she bowed by the book and greeted him: "My respects, Lord Xie."

Song Nanxi would never forget how infatuated she had been with Xie Rong.

She drank poison for him, took arrows for him, and disregarded the good name of a sheltered young lady, clinging to his side day after day.

After years of loving him, all she got in return was a cold remark: "Your humble servant already has someone in his heart. I ask Your Highness to show mercy and let me go."

Song Nanxi had once thought herself destined for greatness, determined to pluck that flower from its lofty heights.

But then her parents died, and her support collapsed.

Her royal brother sent her far away to marry in the Northern Wastelands. The one who had helped arrange the marriage was him.

Seven years of wind and frost in the northern frontier had finally worn down her sharp edges.

She had learned to yield. She no longer thought of him or missed him.

She no longer loved him, nor hated him.

Seven years later, Xie Rong met her again in a snow-covered palace garden.

She had brought her husband and young daughter to the palace for an audience with the emperor. They chatted and laughed along the way, while the famed Prince of Jin walked gently behind them, carefully holding an umbrella over his wife and daughter.

Xie Rong clenched his fist, crushing the jade pendant in his hand.

It had once been a birthday gift she carved and gave him with her own hands.

During the seven years she was gone,

Xie Rong wished every year that he could forget her.

But memories gnawed at his heart like poison, leaving him dreaming in terror night after night.

He had once reproached her for being unruly and taught her to be gentle and obedient.

But in the end, what he wanted most was still the way she used to be.

In the seventh year after her marriage alliance, Xie Rong finally broke his pride.

But she would never turn back for him again.

Theme: A loving family.